Abstract:

As in most Western countries, Belgium is confronted with a growth of the older offender population. There is currently a dearth in research on the living conditions and needs of older offenders being judged as irresponsible for their offences because of mental illness. Therefore, from a gerontological perspective an explorative literature review has been carried out to investigate which features characterize the subpopulation of older mentally ill offenders. This paper presents and discusses the findings about following themes: definition of an age threshold in forensic contexts, the nature of offences commit by older mentally ill offenders, psychopathology, physical health and victimization and vulnerability

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